{"title":"Public R&D investment in economic crises","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.respol.2024.105084","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We study the cyclicality of public R&D in 29 OECD countries over the period 1995 to 2019. Public R&D is procyclical on average, and mostly driven by adjustments in public R&D aimed at the government and higher education sectors. However, public R&D reacts asymmetrically over different phases of the business cycle, becoming acyclical during recessions. This acyclicality masks an important heterogeneity across countries: the world’s leading innovators behave countercyclically during recessions and even increase public R&D. These results suggest that countries behind the innovation frontier could still strengthen their resilience to economic crises by adopting countercyclical public R&D strategies, thereby also safeguarding long-term growth through innovation.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48466,"journal":{"name":"Research Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Research Policy","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733324001331","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"MANAGEMENT","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
We study the cyclicality of public R&D in 29 OECD countries over the period 1995 to 2019. Public R&D is procyclical on average, and mostly driven by adjustments in public R&D aimed at the government and higher education sectors. However, public R&D reacts asymmetrically over different phases of the business cycle, becoming acyclical during recessions. This acyclicality masks an important heterogeneity across countries: the world’s leading innovators behave countercyclically during recessions and even increase public R&D. These results suggest that countries behind the innovation frontier could still strengthen their resilience to economic crises by adopting countercyclical public R&D strategies, thereby also safeguarding long-term growth through innovation.
期刊介绍:
Research Policy (RP) articles explore the interaction between innovation, technology, or research, and economic, social, political, and organizational processes, both empirically and theoretically. All RP papers are expected to provide insights with implications for policy or management.
Research Policy (RP) is a multidisciplinary journal focused on analyzing, understanding, and effectively addressing the challenges posed by innovation, technology, R&D, and science. This includes activities related to knowledge creation, diffusion, acquisition, and exploitation in the form of new or improved products, processes, or services, across economic, policy, management, organizational, and environmental dimensions.